by Galen Wolf
I’m about to argue but Merlin casts more spells and more of the enemy dance around like lunatics. Okay, this is our chance. I shout out, ‘Retreat!’ and I try to turn Spirit. I get a blow from Reza for my trouble and I know I shouldn’t get angry but I just see red, lose my knightly composure and jab him in the belly. I don’t crit but it hurts him and he pulls back, giving me time to run.
I hate running but sometimes honour has to be sacrificed to sense. Fitheach is coming back with me but Tye isn’t. If he stays in that melee, even with Merlin’s aid, he will die, but the little guy’s blood’s up and he’s firing Flaming Rays left and right, his jaw set and his blue eyes wild with hate.
I yell, ‘C’mon, Tye!’ He doesn’t listen.
Fitheach is hanging back to help Tye.
‘Go!’ I shout. He’s reluctant, but he spurs his mare off and crosses the broken ground towards the walls of Caer.
I hang there and Reza comes for me again. He hits me and I take another necrotic bolt from Elizabeth Bathory. Only half of it gets through the shield but the Shield spell is now burned out and I’m down to 300 health with no Fitheach to heal me up. I pull out a healing potion but I have to block Reza again. ‘Tye! Come on!’ I shout from behind my shield.
This time he turns. A big Fang of Koth I don’t know goes at him with a scimitar. I think Tye’s a goner, but Merlin fires a Colour Spray and the bad guy’s instantly blinded. ‘Come on!’ I yell. This is the final time. If he doesn’t come now, then I must leave him.
‘Damn all of you!’ The fire mage yells, spurring Bessie who looks mighty relieved to be pulling away from the fight.
At last.
I turn, hack into Reza still not killing him but Merlin does something fancy and a white light explodes in Reza’s face and he slaps at himself as if his face is full of buzzing bees. I go.
We’re galloping away from our enemies and there’s plenty of them behind us, but the walls of Caer loom up tall and red in front.
Merlin is fighting the enemy single handed, buying us time.
Bernard is with the halflings standing uselessly below the wall. They‘re there but they can‘t get in. The only broken part of wall is further up and is seething with Satanus’s minions. So, we’re beneath the walls of Caer, but how the heck are we going to gain entry?
And then I think of the Guild Forum for the Knights of the Round Table. I know Satanus has eyes on it, but this is desperate and Satanus must know we’re here now, anyway.
Gorrow: Guys, we’re outside Caer, by the eastern walls. We need to get in. Help!
No reply. I ride up to the walls, pulling up and slowing down as we approach Bernard. He looks desperate. Even the ever smiling Josh Maggs-Rimmer is looking worried.
‘Plan?’ Fitheach asks.
‘Getting inside the walls.’
‘They’re pretty high,’ Tye says, craning his neck. ‘Maybe Merlin can give us a lift on his carpet?’
‘What?’ Bernard says. ‘One at a time? Two at a time at best. They enemy is seconds away.’
Tye says, ‘You could get maybe five little halfling guys on the carpet?’
Bernard scowls at Tye. ‘Don’t be an idiot.’
Tye snaps, ‘Keep your hair on, Uncle.’
Bernard looks like he’s going to explode. His fists clench round the reins and his mouth twists like he’s going to spit at the fire mage, then I get a reply to my forum message.
Lancelot: Where are you?
Gorrow: East walls.
Lancelot: Not sure we can help. We are fully committed against Satanus. Not good.
Gorrow: We’ve got supplies.
Lancelot: Still. Sorry man.
Gawain: I see them. They’re below.
I look up and I see the silhouette of a man way way up. It’s hard to make out who it is. I wave. He waves back.
Gawain: Me. Come to the sally port.
Lancelot: Gawain, no.
Gorrow: Which way?
Gawain: Follow the wall south.
Lancelot: It’s secret. You can’t reveal it. The enemy read this board.
Gawain: Gorrow. Come with your guys south.
I’m relieved. I give orders to move then I hear a wail of horror. I look and see it’s Tye. I’ve never seen him look so shocked, horrified and appalled.
‘What?’
Tye points. ‘I can’t believe it. They’ve killed Merlin.’
I look over. It’s true. The great wizard has fallen. And with Merlin gone, the enemy are coming for us.
33
At the Court of the Crimson King
I keep glancing up to where Gawain is on the walls, he’s moving fast and his head reappears from behind each battlement into the gap before disappearing behind the next one. The air smells of fire.
I turn, trying to shepherd the halflings along, but they’re running, looking panicked. I understand why: a battalion of wolf riding goblins is galloping across the burned ground towards us now they‘ve got rid of Merlin our protector. I don’t have time to take it in, but I get the sense of the Enemy's armies pounding the city walls to the north, threatening the inner city. They’re seething everywhere.
‘Come on, guys! Hurry!’ I yell. I’m at the back. Fitheach comes back with me offering me a grim smile of support.
The air is full of pterosaurs flying in formation above us. That’s the last thing we need — assault from land and sky. A glimpse back shows me wolf riders cutting across the ground quickly.
I scream, ‘Come on! Come on!’
The halflings are running as fast as they can but struggling. They have little legs after all. Fitheach’s with me behind them, Bernard and Tye are at the front. Gawain is out of sight. There’s no sign of the sally port yet. No sign of escape. All our journeying to get here might end in disaster.
We hustle for where we think the sally port will be. We’re hugging under the walls as some kind of protection from the pterosaurs. But it’s not enough. The leathery monsters dive for us. One takes a halfling, grabbing him up in its beak and chewing as it flies off, leaving the two halfs of the halfling to drop with a wet thud onto the burned ground. The Lord alone knows what happened to the halfling’s backpack full of crystals.
Tye fires a Flaming Ray and takes one of the dinosaurs down, its leather wings catching fire like dry paper. The pterosaur screams in pain and plummets.
I yell, ‘Tye, no! Don’t fight. Run!’
Fitheach turns and fires at one that was about to skim my skull with its claws. I’m grateful but we don’t need the delay. I’m behind the halflings on Spirit, trying to herd them forward. One stumbles into the mud and I lean down and grab him by the backpack, putting him back on his feet so he can run again.
‘I see it!’ shouts Bernard from the front. If he’s found the Sally Port, I can’t see anything. I twist and scan for the wolf riders behind. They’re seconds away from hitting us. Something to my left catches my eye as I ride. It’s the outline of a shadowy figure. My heart sinks: Deathknife is still following us. What the hell does he want?
Bbut as the wolf riders smash into us, that is the least of my worries.
I spin and slash at the thing, hitting it with a vorpal and slicing its head off. But there are plenty more. Fitheach turns and blasts out light, burning and searing the leather-faced goblins and their shaggy black wolves. I turn and cut and slice. They get damage in on me, but they’re no match. I urge Spirit into them and he rears and clatters his hoofs down on them. I jab a wolf that tries to chew me and I take another goblin, cutting him in half with a crit.
Fitheach heals me, but I holler at him not to because we need to be killing these and driving on. Another goblin jabs me, and I slaughter him. Fitheach kills two with one blast. There are loads of them though — too many to kill them all, but at least we are hampering them and the halflings with Bernard and Tye are about two hundred yards ahead.
I hope they’re not waiting for us. My looking round to see where they were cost me a sword in the leg. Spirit rears up and strikes the goblin with his front hoofs. I finish the thing off and they’ve only got half of their original force. However, the remaining Fangs of Koth that we fled from have regrouped and are running swiftly towards us.
‘We need to break off,’ I yell at Fitheach. He nods and despatches another goblin rider. ‘Three, two one and we go?’
He ducks and avoids a Pterosaur strike. This is anarchy. Though we outclass the goblin riders by far, there are multitudes of goblins and wolves, and Pterosaurs, and Fangs of Koth about to join battle. Reza is there with Gearhart and the rest covering ground fast. They’re almost within striking distance.
Fitheach yells, ‘One!’ and spurs his mare Laireog. He breaks off from contact and takes off across the ground to where the halflings gather by the walls. There are only a few of them left and no Bernard. What the heck?
Then I realise he must have gotten into the castle through the sally port, even though I still can’t see it.
A pterosaur divebombs the halflings but before it can strike, Tye casts Fireball and blows that one and another pterosaur that was swooping above it both out of existence. I break off from fighting with a backward slice at a goblin and Spirit explodes into a gallop forward. The wolf riders are bemused first where we’ve gone, but they follow as best they can.
At least my burst of speed put the Fangs of Koth further behind now. No sign of Deathknife. He must be in full stealth now because I can’t see him at all.
I’m nearly at the halflings where Tye shepherds the last one down stone steps into a barely visible entrance cunningly disguised at the bottom of the castle wall. ‘Gorrow, hurry!’ he says.
Josh Maggs-Rimmer is the last of the halflings to go down the sally port steps. For the first time, I see Sir Gawain grinning at me. In his fist he has the viciously sharp and very uber great axe he picked up in the Green Knight quest he did in Wales. ‘Speed up, Gorrow. Where the hell have you been? We needed you!’
‘I’m here now,’ I say. I dismount Spirit and realise that there’s no way the stallion can fit into that entrance. Fitheach dismounts Laireog and I realise that Henry, Bessie, Laireog and Spirit will have to remain outside. As if reading my thoughts, tombstone-teeth Henry says, ‘Don’t worry, Gorrow. I’ll look after them.’
I nod and stroke Spirit’s neck. He whinnies. ‘Go fast and far, boy. Be safe!’ I slap his side and he runs. The rest run with him.
‘Come on, Gorrow,’ Gawain says.
I’m the last now, standing there watching Spirit go. ‘No time for daydreaming,’ Gawain says, extending a hand as if to pull me down. I look left and see the remaining wolf riders and about a hundred yards behind them the Fangs of Koth.
The wolf riders are almost on us. Gawain jumps up out of the sally port, hefting his great axe. His armour gleams in the sun, pale and hardly visible behind the palls of smoke from the burning city. On his back and front plates are his heraldic device: a yellow pentangle on a red background. Gawain plants his feet and stops to face the goblins. I stand beside him.
The goblins waver, but keep coming. Their mistake. Gawain lifts his huge axe; acid drips from its double crescent moon blades. He roars his battle cry and I roar mine. They come. They die.
Gawain swings his axe and cuts goblins and wolves in two. That is some weapon.
I heft my sword, put up my shield and run at them. I take down the first goblin easily, my sword destroying it without even critting. Suddenly, their morale breaks.
The remaining goblins break and run. We don’t chase them. I stand waiting for the Fangs of Koth. Maligon and Reza. Morrigan, Elizabeth Bathory, Gearhart and the rest come at us. But no Deathknife.
‘Fight?’ I ask.
Gawain shakes his head, his long brown hair halfway down his back. ‘Nope. Let’s get that Sally Port closed. We don’t want the Fangs of Koth coming in by the back door.’
We turn and run and Gawain leaps down the steps, allowing me through. He pushes forward a huge metal lattice and speaks words of locking. He casts another spell and a massive red sandstone wall appears, sealing off the Sally Port so the Fangs of Koth can’t get in. I notice he was casting spells so I ask, ‘What’s your Prestige Class, Gawain?’
He smiles. ‘The spells? Yeah, I’m an Eldritch Knight. It’s cool. Anyway, we have little time. Let’s go and see the King.’
Gawain leads us through the besieged city. It looks in a bad way, with houses are on fire or already burned down. Overhead, the city’s eagles are doing their best to keep the enemy from having air superiority over the city, but they’re losing to the pterosaurs, cockatrices and other monsters the enemy has in the air.
Big trebuchets dot the inside of the battlements manned by weary looking soldiers. Now and then there’s a thud, and a bolt fires off into the sky, hitting an enemy flier if it’s lucky.
Rubble crunches underfoot and Gawain leads us to a defended gateway. A detachment of elite NPC guards stands ready to fight any enemy that gets into the city. They salute Gawain, and to my surprise, they salute me too.
‘Guess, they know who you are, Gorrow,’ Bernard says with a grin.
We enter the Keep proper and go past more checkpoints and up a wide spiral staircase, climbing up towards the top of the castle building. I don’t ask where we’re going, just trust Gawain to take us. And after a short walk, we arrive at the throne room. More guards. Lots more guards. More player knights. I recognise Sir Ector, Sir Galahad, Sir Parsifal, Sir Kay and Sir Bedwyr. They’re all here for the last battle.
I herd the halflings into the room. I need them to be safe. Josh Maggs-Rimmer looks impressed to be in such noble company.
And there’s Bors and Lancelot. They come over and give me a hug. ‘Got here at last, Gorrow?’ Lancelot says with a grin.
‘That’s what I said!’ Gawain laughs.
Bors says, ‘Better late than never. I thought you were chickening out on us.’
I’m about to say something but Gawain takes my elbow and leads me forward with Lancelot to where the King is sitting on his throne in his blood red war armour. He looks exhausted. To my pleasant surprise, he’s talking with Merlin the gold-clad wizard. Merlin looks up and smiles, answering my question before I ask it. He smiles. ‘I just resurrected and flew back. The carpet’s pretty nippy.’
I nod and wait for my chance to talk.
Arthur is speaking, ‘...and he’s just hovering up there, taunting us. I need to face him. Even if I lose...’
‘You won’t lose, sire,’ Lancelot reassures the King.
‘No,’ Arthur says. ‘But I need to fight him. To give heart to the men. To show we aren’t finished.’
Merlin shakes his head. ‘No, Arthur, listen. If you lose, that’s it for us all. The blow to our morale will be catastrophic. Don’t fight him.’
The King rubs his forehead. ‘Are you saying I shouldn’t fight him at all? Never?’
Merlin looks serious. ‘No, not that. But we need more time.’
The King throws up his hands. ‘More time for what? What help is coming now?’
Merlin shrugs. He looks weary too. But this is my chance to talk. ‘Sire,’ I say.
King Arthur glances in my direction, seeing me for the first time. A grin breaks on his tired face.‘Gorrow? Long time no see.’
I bow.
Arthur continues with a dry laugh. ‘Seems like we only meet at the fall of...’ He corrects himself. ‘At the sieges of mighty cities.’
‘I’m sorry, sire.’
Arthur waves away my apologies. ‘Don’t be sorry. I hear you’ve been doing great work in the north. Sticking pins in the enemy’s arse. I’m sorry, I’m so preoccupied, but I was talking to Merlin, hoping he would give me some great advice.’
Merlin scowls. ‘That’s not fair, Arthur.’
But I interrupt
. ‘Sire, I have brought something we can use to make vorpal weapons with.’
He pricks up his ears. For the first time, he’s really listening. ‘Vorpal weapons?’
Lancelot nods. ‘Instakill 5% chance. No matter how big they are.’
Arthur narrows his eyes. ‘How many do you have?’
I blush. ‘I don’t have the weapons.’
The King sits back. ‘Ah.’
‘... but I’ve got the makings of the weapons. We need a little time.’
He studies me. ‘Time again? Okay. How much time?’
‘Not much. We need a smithy with some crafting facilities.’
‘We’ve got those,’ Arthur says.
‘Then we can start.’
Lancelot says, ‘Knights of the Round Table should get vorpal added to their swords first.’
Bors nods. So do they all. They’re interested and eager. They jostle round.
I turn to Bernard and Josh. ‘We’d better begin.’
Gawain slaps me on the back and Lancelot is about to lead us out and downstairs to the Smithy when Arthur says, ‘Hurry, though Gorrow. I need to fight him. He’s just hovering there, taunting me, calling me a coward. I can’t tolerate that. So take Excalibur and put me some vorpal on it.’
Merlin begins, ‘Satanus will be immune…’
Arthur says, ‘But his minions won’t be.’
With great reverence I walk over and take the mighty sword Excalibur from King Arthur. As I take it, I can’t help looking at its stats.
+13 Bastard Sword.
Reforged Crystal.
300 Acid Damage.
500 Holy Damage.
33% Crit Chance.
Demonslayer 10%.
Anti-Shapeshifter,
Scourge of Evil 15%>
Nice.
We leave Arthur’s chamber and Lancelot leads us down the stairs. I’m standing next to Bernard and I ask the question that has haunted me since we spoke first to the King about vorpal weapons. ‘How many halflings made it?’